Almost a year of food control in this country has passed and the great new experiment in democratic administration of the nation's food is succeeding. The method of well-directed voluntary co-operation, much more characteristic of our food control than of any other country's, can be judged by its results to date. We have sent abroad six times the wheat that we had believed was in the country for export. We have exported vastly increased shipments of the other cereals, of beef and pork, of fats and condensed milk. With Canada, we are supplying 50 per cent of the Allies' food, instead of barely 5 per cent, as before the war. Meanwhile our own population has been taken care of. No one has gone hungry because of the shipments of food out of the country. The price of the most important food, bread, has been kept stable—a new experience in time of war.
These and others are great accomplishments, brought about through the co-operation of the nation, but they are slight in comparison with what must still be done. The huge resources for extra food production and conservation have hardly been touched. The imagination is just beginning to be stirred by the immensity of the whole undertaking and the sacrifice required to win the war. Men, ammunition and food, in a steadily increasing stream, must go across.
"Our duty, if we are to do this great thing and show America to be what we believe her to be—the greatest hope and energy of the world—is to stand together night and day until the job is finished."—PRESIDENT WILSON.
A FEW REFERENCES
American Academy of Political and Social Science. "World's Food." Philadelphia, 1917. (Annals of the American Academy, November, 1917.)
Carter, Howe and Mason. "Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics." Philadelphia, Lea & Febiger, 1918.
Holmes, A.D., and Lang, H.L. "Fats and Their Economical Use in the Home." Washington, 1916. (Department of Agriculture Bulletin 469.)
Kellogg, Vernon, and Taylor, Alonzo E. "Food Problems." New York, Macmillan, 1917.
Langworthy, C.F. "Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, and Other Starchy Roots as Food." Washington, 1917. (Department of Agriculture Bulletin 468.)